Nazeer Akbarabadi

• Name — Nazeer Akbarabadi • Birth Name — Wali Muhammad • Born — 1735 • Birthplace — Agra • Died — 1830 • Place of death — Dehli • Occupation — poet • Language — Urdu • Notable Works — Banjaranama (Chronicle of the Nomad)

His father was Muhammad Farooq and his mother was the daughter of Nawab Sultan Khan who was the governor of Agra Fort. Agra, the Indian city, was known as Akbarabad after Mughal emperor Akbar at that time. Nazeer's date of birth is not certain but most of his biographers believe that he was born in Delhi (then called "Dihli") in 1735 AD. The period of his birth coincided with the decline of the Mughal Empire in India. Nazeer was still a child in 1739 when Nadir Shah attacked Delhi and the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (also known as "Muhammad Shah Rangila") was arrested. Though Muhammad Shah was later released, countless people were killed in Delhi. Eighteen years later, in 1757 AD, Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked Delhi, and people left Delhi for safer cities. Nazeer, along with his mother and grandmother, abandoned Delhi and migrated to Akbarabad.

It is said that Nazeer's poetic works consisted of about 200,000 verses, but the majority have been destroyed and only 6,000 verses are available in printed form. No other Urdu poet before him had used as many words as Nazeer did. Nazeer's poetry conveyed the plight of the common people in their own everyday language and was very popular among the masses. Perhaps due to this lack of the "elite" element, Nazir's genius was not recognized until much later. Nazeer's popularity is primarily due to his nazms, which reflected various aspects of the daily life of his age, such as all types of religious and social events among common people. He wrote nazms about religious and social festivals, such as Diwali, Holi, Eid, Shab-e-baraat, about fruits and about animals like mouse and birds, about seasons and even inanimate objects. His nazms also explored about different aspects of human life, such as "muflisi" (Urdu word meaning "poverty") and "kohrinamah" (chronicle of a leper). Nazeer Akbarabadi's contemporaries were Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir, Sheikh Qalandar Bakhsh Jur'at, Insha Allah Khan Insha, and Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi.

Nazeer was the one who laid the foundation of natural poetry, which was later continued by Altaf Hussain Hali and Muhammad Husain Azad.

In 1954, the Indian Urdu playwright Habib Tanvir wrote and directed his first significant play, Agra Bazar, based on the works and times of Nazir Akbarabadi. It used local residents and folk artist from Okhla village in Delhi and students of Jamia Millia Islamia as actors, a play not staged in a confined space, rather a bazaar, a marketplace.

He also worked under the name Nazeer. The authorities additionally record the heading Nazir akbarobodiy. His recorded language was Urdu. His recorded confession was Islam.